Could you ever leave the internet?

[frazzled]

17. I need it for my work, but otherwise ...

I should spend waaaaaay less time on it. I know this. But it's a bit of an addiction.

I successfully gave up watching cable news programs (with the exception of when there is some live news to watch). But it wasn't like I had to try: I just got so tired of listening to the endless jibber jabber, and it didn't seem to lead to my deeper understanding of anything. I just got bored with it.

I could give up a LOT of what I waste time on on the Internet. But it depends on what else is available in the real world. Right now I get two dead-tree newspapers every morning, and there are still bricks-and-mortar stores around, and even TV (blechhh)—these are things I worry may not exist in the not-too-distant future. But other things are pretty certain to remain: books, and knitting, and new recipes to cook, and long walks in the park ... and martinis, and conversation with real people, and exercise. These are probably much better things to waste time on than googling useless stuff. They just take more initiative.

So if I didn't need the Internet for most aspects of my work, I could probably give most of it up. (I used to do the same work before it existed, but it was way more time consuming and expensive: I used to have to send hand-marked manuscripts by overnight FedEx, while now I can just make a PDF and zap it halfway across the world.)

In the end, however, there's no going back. It's like saying you could do without electricity. Sure, you could, but it would be kind of crazy.